A family travels from the big woods of Wisconsin to a new home on the prairie, where they build a house, meet neighboring Indians, build a well, and fight a prairie fire.

Having settled on the Kansas frontier, young Bill Cody and his family try to make a home for themselves, coexist with their Kickapoo neighbors, and stand up as abolitionists in spite of their neighbors' pro-slavery beliefs.

May is helping out on a neighbor's homestead - just until Christmas, her pa promises. But when a terrible turn of events leaves her all alone, she must try to find food and fuel - and courage - to make it through the approaching winter.

Shortly after the Civil War a black family travels to Kansas to take advantage of the free land offered through the Homestead Act.

Laura and her pioneer family struggle against hardships on the Kansas frontier, including a prairie fire, a grasshopper invasion, and a blizzard.